Smash Diebold

In June of 2006, a Diebold TS Touch Screen voting machine showed up on eBay. My immediate impulse was to take a sledgehammer to it.

Under the auspices of Open Voting Foundation, we managed to purchase the machine. The Diebold TS represents the very worst in voting technology: Big, heavy, expensive, multiple avenues for hackers, no paper trail, crashes, freeze ups, secret software, a lead-acid battery that needs frequent changing, antiquated, and so on. Some friends talked me out of smashing it -- for a while.

We considered the possibility of adding a printer and open source software to show how it might be converted into something better, but concluded the design was too flawed to begin with to make such an effort worthwhile.

I want to thank everyone that helped make this event work -- like Brent Turner, Alec Bash, and we can't forget the Raging Grannies. Also, thanks to everyone that contributed toward the purchase -- special thanks to Pete Johnson of Ohio, who arranged to pick up the machine and ship it to us in California. I think it was well worth it and helped us make several points in a very public way.